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rhe Story of the Hurons 



By 

£• J. HatKaM^ay 



Gift 

Carnegie Institution 
0f Washinj^or 

JAN xU 191? 



The Story of the Hurons 



The 

Story of the Hurons 



BY 
E. J. Hathaway 



Printed for the Ontario Historical Society, 
August, 1915 






Reprinted from 

Maclean's Magazine 

August. 1915 



The Story of the Hurons 



THE beginnings of Canadian history 
are interwoven in the most intimate 
way with the efforts of the mon- 
archy and nobility of France and the 
Church of Rome to graft upon the new 
world a system which in the old had 
brought corruption, strife, warfare and 
suffering. They formed a brilliant at- 
tempt to grasp half a continent, saddle it 
with the exactions of a feudal Govern- 
ment and stifle it with the burden of a 
grasping hierarchy. 

Primarily the discovery of America by 
Columbus, the venturesome voyages of 
Cartier, the energetic exploits of Cham- 
plain, the hazardous journeyings to the 
far West of Joliet, LaSalle and others 
were due to the lure of the distant East — 
the desire to find a short way to the King- 
dom of Cathay and secure access to its 
fabulous wealth. Secondary only to this 
5 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

were the claims of colonization, the found- 
ing of a new empire, the desire for trade 
with the Indians. 

For many years following the explora- 
tions of Cartier in the new world, France 
had little chance to take advantage of the 
opportunities opened up, and it was not 
until the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury that the spirit of commercial enter- 
prise and the zeal for discovery awoke and 
any real effort was made to develop trade 
or encourage settlement. 

An unsuccessful attempt was made in 
1600 to establish a settlement at Tadous- 
sac at the mouth of the Saguenay River, in 
order to secure control of the fur trade. 
A few years later another was founded by 
DeMonts and Champlain at Port Royal in 
Nova Scotia. The existence of Port Royal 
was for some years of the most precarious 
character. The severity of the climate, 
the jealousy of rival merchants, the con- 
stant disputes between French and Eng- 
lish as to sovereignty — these were all dis- 
couraging elements. 

Meanwhile Champlain in 1608 founded 
Quebec at one of the places visited by 
Cartier seventy years before. Champlain, 
6 




SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, 



Founded Quebec, 1608. Visited Algonquin 

Indian Village on Ottawa River, 1613, 

and arrived at Huron Country', 

in present County of Simcoe, 

August 1st, 1615. 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

however, had ambitions beyond that of 
trading furs. From the Algonquins who 
came to Quebec to trade he learned of 
lakes and rivers beyond the rapids and he 
cherished the hope that by tracing back 
the interior waters to their source a west- 
ern route to China, Japan and India might 
be discovered. His other great desires 
were to establish the power of France and 
to plant the Catholic faith in the wilder- 
ness of the new world. 

The first winter in Quebec was severe 
enough to test the endurance of the most 
courageous. The little band of twenty- 
eight that remained with Champlain was 
reduced to eight by the following May. 
With the return of the supply boat from 
France in the spring, the way was open 
for exploration and discovery. An agree- 
ment entered into between Champlain and 
the chief of the Algonquins to assist them 
against their enemies, the Iroquois — a 
federation of five powerful nations living 
in fortified villages within the present 
State of New York — resulted in the dis- 
covery of the Richelieu River and the lake 
that bears the name of the great French 
leader. By thus joining forces with the 
7 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

Hurons and Algonquins Champlain hoped 
to open the way to the discovery of terri- 
tory otherwise inaccessible; and while he 
gained the antagonism of the Iroquois, he 
at the same time became indispensable to 
his allies, and at the close of the first ex- 
pedition readily accepted their invitation 
to visit their towns and to aid them fur- 
ther in their wars. 

In 1610 Henry Hudson, in an effort to 
find a north-west passage to the Far East, 
had discovered Hudson Bay. Shortly 
afterward one of Champlain's young men, 
Nicolas de Vignau, was sent to spend a 
season with the Algonquins in their 
country up the Ottawa. On his return 
he told a marvelous tale of finding a 
great lake at the source of the Ottawa, 
from which another river flowed north- 
ward leading to the sea. Upon the shores 
of the sea he claimed to have seen the 
wreck of an English ship, evidently that 
of Hudson, whose crew had mutinied. 
This sea was said to be but seventeen 
days distant by canoe from Montreal. 

This direct confirmation of his theory 
of a shortcut to the Pacific was so 
8 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

important that early in the summer of 
16-13 Champlain set out to follow up the 
discovery, taking Vignau with him. They 
left St. Helen's Island, opposite Montreal, 
on May 27th. Never before had a party 
of white men penetrated this virgin coun- 
try. The Ottawa, though navigable for 
much of the way, has many swift currents, 
tortuous passages and treacherous rapids. 
Day after day they toiled on, paddling in 
the clear currents, and pushing, dragging 
or lifting their canoes across the difficult 
places. They shouldered their boats 
through the dense woods around the more 
dangerous rapids, launching them again 
in the more quiet waters, and at night 
they made their camp on the edge of the 
woody banks. Not only had they the 
hardships of travel, but they suffered 
much from pests of mosquitoes by day and 
dangers from wild animals by night. 

When they reached the Algonquin coun- 
try the Indians told Champlain that the 
rapids in the river above were impassable, 
and Champlain was forced to accompany 
them to the headquarters of the tribe on 
Allumette Island. 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

Champlain begged the chiefs to furnish 
him with canoes and men to take him to 
the country of the Nipissings on Lake 
Nipissing, some distance further north. 
The request, at first granted, was after- 
wards denied. The rapids and rocks in 
the river were dangerous, and the wicked- 
ness of the Nipissings was inexpressible. 

Champlain urged his claims with all his 
skill. The young man Vignau had been 
there; here was his story and a map show- 
ing the route he had taken. 

The Indians were indignant. Vignau 
had spent the winter in their lodges. He 
had not been a mile farther north than 
they were at that moment. His story was 
a fabrication, his map an imposture. This 
proved to be the case. His desire for 
notoriety had been his undoing; and he 
had hoped that the difficulties of the jour- 
ney and the dangers of the trip would 
have discouraged Champlain, and caused 
him to return without discovering his 
falsehood. There was now no good reason 
for continuing the expedition, and Cham- 
plain retraced his steps to Montreal. 

Two years later, having spent the in- 
tervening period in France, Champlain re- 
10 




FATHER BREBEUF, 



Jesuit Missionary. Arrived in Canada, 1626. 

Killed by Iroquois in Massacre of Village of 

St. Louis, present County of Simcoe, 

March 16th, 1649. 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

turned again to Canada. He was accom- 
panied this time by four Recollet priests, 
members of the Franciscan Order, for 
the purpose of ministering to the spiritual 
needs of the Indian population as well as 
to those of the French traders and set- 
tlers. They arrived at Quebec at the end 
of May, 1615, where, after choosing a site 
for their convent near the fortifications 
erected by Champlain, they built an altar, 
and on June 24th Father Dolbeau cele- 
brated the first mass ever said in Canada. 
The congregation knelt on the bare earth, 
while the guns from the fort and from 
the ship in the river marked the occasion 
as one of special importance. 

Father Jamay and Du Plesis were as- 
signed to work at Quebec, Father Le 
Caron to establish a mission to the Hurons 
at their headquarters on Lake Huron, and 
Father Dolbeau to work among the Mon- 
tagnais Indians on the St. Lawrence. Le 
Caron immediately set off to Montreal, 
then thronged with Indians on their an- 
nual visit for the trading of furs. The 
assembled Hurons and Algonquins also 
were eager for Champlain's assistance 
against the Iroquois. "With French 
11 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

soldiers to fight their battles," says Park- 
man, "French priests to baptize them, and 
French traders to supply their increasing 
wants, their dependence would be com- 
plete." This was the policy of Champlain. 
The Hurons and Algonquins agreed to 
supply twenty-five hundred warriors; he 
would join them with all the men at his 
command; and a vigorous warfare would 
be opened against the powerful Iroquois. 
He returned to Quebec to make prepara- 
tions for the expedition, and on his return 
he found that Le Caron, with twelve 
Frenchmen, had left with the Indians on 
July the first for the Huron country. 
Champlain, with two others and a party 
of Hurons, set out eight days later. 

Their way as far as the Algonquin vil- 
lage was by the course taken two years 
before. From this point he advanced until 
he reached the tributary waters at Matta- 
wa, leading to Lake Nipissing. An outlet 
at the western end of the lake led into the 
French River, which carried them to the 
great fresh-water sea of the Hurons, now 
known as Georgian Bay. Their course for 
more than a hundred miles continued 
south along the eastern shore of Georgian 
12 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

Bay, through the thirty thousand islands, 
to Thunder Bay at the entrance to 
Matchedash Bay near the harbor of 
Penetanguishene. 

Champlain arrived in the Huron coun- 
try on August 1st. On August 3rd he 
visited Carhagouha, a town surrounded 
by a triple palisade thirty-five feet high, 
where he found Le Caron engaged with 
the Indians in the erection of an altar. 

Parkman thus describes the first re- 
ligious ceremony ever held in the province 
of Ontario : 

"The twelfth of August, 1615, was a 
day evermore marked with white in the 
friar's calendar. Arrayed in priestly vest- 
ments, he stood before his simple altar, 
behind him his little band of Christians — 
the twelve Frenchmen who had attended 
him and the two who had followed Cham- 
plain. Here stood their devout and valiant 
chief, and at his side that pioneer of 
pioneers, Etienne Brule, the interpreter. 
The Host was raised aloft; the worship- 
pers kneeled. Then their rough voices 
joined in the hymn of praise, Te Deum 
Laudamus; and then a volley of their 
guns proclaimed the triumph of the okies, 
13 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

the manitous, and all the brood of ano- 
malous devils who reigned with undis- 
puted sway in these wild realms of dark- 
ness. The brave friar, a true soldier of 
the Church, had led his forlorn hope into 
the fastnesses of hell ; and now, with con- 
tented heart, he might depart in peace, 
for he had said the first mass in the coun- 
try of the Hurons." 

The Hurons at the time of Champlain's 
visit occupied the district on the south- 
eastern shore of Georgian Bay, lying be- 
tween Matchedash Bay, Nottawasaga 
Bay, Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching. 
They were a numerous and powerful peo- 
ple, second only to the Iroquois in 
strength, in numbers and in methods 
of organization and government. They 
lived in villages and towns, many of 
them strongly fortified, and as early 
French writers estimate the popula- 
tion variously, it is inferred that mi- 
grations took place from time to time. 
Champlain estimates the number of vil- 
lages as seventeen or eighteen, with the 
population at about ten thousand; but 
Brebeuf, twenty years later, found twenty 
villages and about 30,000 souls. In 1639 
14 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

the Jesuit estimate is thirty-two inhabited 
villages and thirty-two thousand of a 
population. From this it will be seen that 
the number of people in the district at 
that time was as large as at the present 
time, including the large towns of Orillia, 
Midland and Penetanguishene. 

Unlike most of the other Indian tribes, 
the Hurons were farmers, fishermen and 
traders, cultivating the land and raising 
corn, beans and other crops for food, and 
hemp for fishing lines and nets. From 
other nations they obtained, by barter, 
supplies of furs, tobacco and other mer- 
chantable goods, which they traded in the 
East for such other articles as they re- 
quired. 

The country of the Hurons is one of 
the most interesting archaeological fields 
in Canada, and traces have been found of 
upwards of four hundred places, which 
beyond doubt, were the sites of Huron vil- 
lages. The large number of places identi- 
fied as village sites by reason of the ashes, 
debris, implements, fragments of pottery 
and other evidences of occupation, is ac- 
counted for in several ways. The domes- 
tic conditions under which they lived made 
15 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

it impossible to remain long in any one 
place; the land under cultivation, owing 
to the fact that repeated crops were taken 
from the same soil, soon became barren; 
the fuel supply gave out; the encroach- 
ments and harassments of the hostile 
Iroquois rendered a location untenable; 
any or all of these might at one time or 
another make it necessary to move from 
one place to another. 

Most of the villages were situated in 
elevated places, because of their greater 
strategic value, and those on the southern 
and eastern fronts were strongly fortified 
by palisades as protection against in- 
vasion. 

To the west of the Huron country was 
the country of the Petuns, called the To- 
bacco Nation, because they made a special 
feature of tobacco growing. In Southern 
Ontario from the Niagara to the Detroit 
River were the Neuters or Neutrals, so 
called because in the long conflicts between 
the Iroquois and the Hurons they re- 
mained aloof and took no part with one 
side or the other. 

Champlain remained in the Huron 
country until September 1st, when the 
16 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

war party, now completed, set out on the 
expedition against the Iroquois. Their 
way lay along Lake Simcoe, across the 
portage to Balsam Lake, and down the 
chain of waterways known as the Trent 
River route until they reached Lake 
Ontario. 

They boldly set out across the lake, 
landing near the eastern end, where, after 
hiding their canoes, they struck inland in 
search of the Iroquois headquarters, which 
they reached on October tenth. The 
enemy occupied a strongly fortified town 
south of Lake Oneida, which they de- 
fended with much skill. After nearly a 
week of futile fighting, during which 
Champlain himself received an arrow in 
the knee and another in the leg, the in- 
vaders began their retreat, carrying the 
wounded with them. The Hurons had 
promised to furnish Champlain with 
guides to take him to Quebec, but as he 
had not brought them victory they one 
and all began to make excuses. Nothing 
therefore remained but that he must re- 
turn and spend the winter with them. 

They reached Cahiague, near the pres- 
ent town of Orillia, two days before 
17 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

Christmas, and here, with the exception of 
visits to neighboring tribes in what are 
now the counties of Simcoe, Grey, Bruce 
and Dufferin, and to the Nipissings in the 
north, he remained until the following 
May. 

The Huron mission languished between 
1617 and 1622, although Father Poullain 
visited the Nipissing country during the 
summer of 1619. Work was resumed in 
1623, when Le Caron returned, accom- 
panied by Brother Sagard, the historian, 
and Father Viel. The first two returned 
to Quebec the following year, after hav- 
ing compiled a dictionary of the Huron 
language, and Father Viel was drowned 
on his way east a season later. 

The Recollet mission in Canada was 
supplemented in 1626 by the arrival of a 
company of Jesuit priests, among whom 
were Lalemant and Brebeuf. Eighteen 
years had elapsed since the founding of 
Quebec, and its population was but one 
hundred and five, including men, women 
and children. Brebeuf, with two others, 
set out in company with the returning 
Indians soon after his arrival, and 
reached the Huron country in August, 
18 




FATHER LALEMANT, 



Jesuit Missionary. Arrived in Canada, 1626. 

Killed by Iroquois in Massacre of Village of 

St. Louis, present County of Simcoe 

March 16th, 1649. 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

where he continued the work of the mis- 
sion for three years. 

After the taking of Quebec by Admiral 
Kirke in 1629 Canada remained in posses- 
sion of the English until it was ceded back 
to France in 1632. During this time there 
were no missionaries in Ontario. The next 
missionary period began in 1634. 

The history of the Jesuit mission to the 
Hurons during the next fifteen years is 
one of the most thrilling chapters in Can- 
adian history. During these years up- 
wards of twenty-five missionaries were 
engaged in the work, and at least five 
of them suffered martyrdom. From vil- 
lage to village they went, teaching, 
preaching and baptising in the name 
of Him whom they served. After a 
few years they established a head- 
quarters of their own a little to the east 
of Penetanguishene, where they erected a 
chapel, mission house and hospital, sur- 
rounding them with a stone wall and a 
wooden barricade. From this centre, 
which they called Ste. Marie, they con- 
ducted missionary operations not only 
among the Hurons but also among the 
Petuns and the Neutrals. 
19 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

But during all the years of the Huron 
mission there was the constant Iroquois 
menace. The French traded with the 
Hurons and Algonquins, and the Iro- 
quois with the Dutch, by whom they had 
been supplied with brandy and firearms. 
Champlain's alliance with the Hurons and 
his expedition to the Iroquois country had 
but intensified the enmity. Communica- 
tion with Quebec could only be made by 
the circuitous course of the French River 
and the Ottawa, because of the dangers 
of ambush and attack. When the Huron 
trading parties were strong, the Iroquois 
harassed their trail and raided their 
camps ; when the latter were the stronger, 
the Hurons were massacred on the spot 
or captured and reserved for torture. 

The finest hunting grounds for beaver 
lay to the north and west of the Great 
Lakes, and were largely in the hands of 
the Hurons, who carried their peltries 
only to the French at Montreal and Three 
Rivers. The Iroquois, jealous of their 
rivals in the north, determined to secure 
this trade for themselves. In order to ac- 
complish it, the tribes which stood in their 
way must be destroyed, the Ottawa route 
20 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

closed, and the trade diverted from the 
French settlements to those of the Dutch 
and the English on the Hudson. 

The first blow in this desperate cam- 
paign, which seems to have been planned 
with cunning, skill and daring, was struck 
in 1642, when Contarea, a fortified fron- 
tier village in the Huron country, five 
miles south-west of the present town of 
Orillia, was captured and its entire popu- 
lation either killed or taken captive. In 
1648 the Iroquois returned and took the 
village of St. Joseph II., destroying it by 
fire and taking as prisoners some seven 
hundred of its people who were unable 
to escape. Father Daniel, the first of the 
missionaries to suffer death at their 
hands, was shot as he stood at mass, robed 
in surplice and stole, and every savage 
had a hand in mutilating his body. 

These successes inspired the invaders to 
further conquests. They established a 
strategic base to the east of Lake Simcoe, 
crossing into the Huron country at the 
Narrows. On March 16th, 1649, the vil- 
lage of St. Ignace was attacked and de- 
stroyed, only two of the villagers escap- 
ing either death or capture. A few hours 
21 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

later the village of St. Louis was entered, 
and after setting it on fire the Iroquois re- 
turned to St. Ignace taking with them 
Father Brebeuf and Father Lalemant to 
be tortured. The terrible treatment of 
these two missionaries at the hands of the 
barbarous Iroquois is one of the most 
dreadful tales in the pages of our history. 
Brebeuf, though of stronger constitution, 
succumbed after four hours of torture, 
while Lalemant, of less rugged build, sur- 
vived until the following day. Their 
charred and mangled bodies were found 
after the retreat of the Iroquois. 

When news of the massacre reached the 
Christian Hurons in the village of Ossos- 
sane on the following day, a party of 
warriors engaged the Iroquois, and an 
obstinate struggle took place near and 
within the palisades of St. Louis, which 
had remained intact when the village was 
burned. By sheer weight of numbers the 
Hurons were overcome and destroyed, 
although the invaders lost heavily in the 
battle. 

A day or two later the Iroquois set out 
hurriedly for home, laden with spoils and 
with prisoners, leaving the Huron rem- 
22 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

nants in a panic of despair. The country 
soon became a vast expanse of smoulder- 
ing ruins; village after village was de- 
stroyed and then abandoned, lest some- 
thing of value should fall into the hands 
of the dreaded Iroquois. The panic spread 
from lodge to lodge, the people scattering 
whither they could. Some found their way 
across the ice on Nottawasaga Bay to the:, 
country of the Petuns, others sought shel- 
ter in the Blue Mountains, while others in 
the hope of finding safety removed to 
what is now known as Christian Island, 
a short distance from the mainland. Here 
also the Jesuit missionaries decided to es- 
tablish their mission and make their head- 
quarters. 

In December of the same year the Iro- 
quois, flushed with their success of the 
previous spring, returned to complete 
their work of conquest. Their attention 
this time was directed to the Petuns, and 
once again desolation and despair followed 
their visitation. It was not warfare, but 
butchery, and two more brave mission- 
aries, Father Garnier and Father 
Chabanel, are sent to join the noble army 
of martyrs. 

23 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

Having destroyed the villages and 
lodges and practically all the warriors of 
the Hurons and Petuns, the Iroquois next 
turned to the Neutrals, their own neigh- 
bors to the west of the Niagara River. 
The events of the fall and winter of 1650 
and 1651 were, if anything, more dread- 
ful than those of the previous year. The 
slaughter was terrible, especially among 
the aged and very young. The men were 
not a fighting race, nor were they expert 
canoemen, and they proved no match for 
the huge invading bands from New York 
State. The number of prisoners was un- 
usually large, and consisted mainly of 
young men and women, who were taken 
back to the Iroquois camp, where they be- 
came merged with the Seneca nation. 

Within ten short years one of the great- 
est national tragedies in the human race 
had been enacted — three native races had 
been practically exterminated, and the 
whole country between Lake Erie and the 
Georgian Bay depopulated. A few only 
had escaped, and of their descendants but 
a few small bands now remain. At 
Lorette, near the city of Quebec, is a small 
reserve consisting of about five hundred 
24 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

persons, the descendants of those who es- 
caped to Christian Island. Owing to their 
isolation and to the harassments of the 
ubiquitous Iroquois, they had been com- 
pelled to leave their refuge, and, accom- 
panied by the French missionaries, they 
made their way as best they could to the 
shelter of Quebec. Another band, after 
much wandering in the West, returned, 
towards the end of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, to the Detroit River, and formed 
three settlements, one on the east bank at 
the present town of Sandwich, another on 
the western bank of the river, and a third 
on the south shore of Lake Erie near 
Sandusky. Another band occupies a small 
tract of land in a corner of the Indian 
Territory in the United States. 

The story of the visit of Champlain in 
1615 followed by the Jesuit mission to the 
Huron country from 1626 to 1650 is the 
complete first chapter in the history of 
Ontario. No effort was made at the time 
towards development or settlement, and 
it is probable that there were never more 
than sixty Europeans in the Huron coun- 
try at any one time connected with the 
Indian missions, although the traders and 
25 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

trappers throughout Ontario associated 
with the French settlements and trading 
posts in the province of Quebec may have 
been numerous. 

For many years following the disper- 
sion of the Hurons the known history of 
the province of Ontario is singularly slen- 
der. The old trade route up the Ottawa 
and across the French River to the 
Georgian Bay was doubtless used to some 
extent in defiance of the Iroquois menace, 
although at a later date it gave way to 
the less arduous trip across from Lake 
Ontario to Georgian Bay. A mission was 
established at Quinte on Lake Ontario in 
1666, and about the same time Marquette 
founded another at the Sault. Joliet had 
penetrated Western Ontario and had made 
an expedition under direction of Talon to 
explore the copper mines of Lake Su- 
perior. Father Hennepin visited the 
Humber River and Niagara Falls in 1678, 
and LaSalle two years later crossed from 
Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay by way of 
the Humber and Lake Simcoe. But apart 
from such expeditions and the visits of 
traders, the province of Ontario had no 
well defined history until well on in the 
26 



THE STORY OF THE HURONS. 

eighteenth century. The story, however, 
of its discovery in the search for the 
North-West passage, of the visit of the 
great Champlain, of the founding of a 
mission among the native races then in 
occupation, and the tragic ending not only 
to the mission but also to the Indian 
nation itself, are among the notable events 
in our history. 



27 





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